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Amy Powell Tapped as President of Paramount TV

The executive, who led Paramount's digital arm for the past two years, is the first hire for the recently announced small-screen division.

Amy Powell is expanding her role at Paramount.

The executive, who for the past two years led Paramount's digital arm, has been tapped president of Paramount Television.

The appointment marks Paramount's first hire for its recently revived television division, which will finance and develop small-screen fare for all platforms, from digital episodic content to primetime series. The new division, which returned to production in March with CBS' Beverly Hills Cop pilot, is looking to build a creative studio that will harness existing properties as well as new projects from established and emerging partners in the next five years.

Powell will report to Paramount chairman and CEO Brad Grey and will remain president of Paramount's micro-budget Insurge Pictures, reporting to Adam Goodman and working closely with vice chairman Rob Moore on digital and business affairs.

"Amy has proven herself to be a highly talented, innovative and creative executive,” said Grey. "Her skill and experience working across all platforms, at engaging audiences, and, most recently, her work at Insurge, will be instrumental as we build a versatile television operation.”

At Paramount's digital arm, Powell was key in releasing Ben Stiller's Burning Love, which recently earned an Emmy nomination and will later move to E! The unit is also in preproduction on the Bandito Brothers-produced thriller Chop Shop. For Insurge, she was instrumental in releasing Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, The Devil Inside and Katy Perry: Part of Me.

“The opportunity to develop programming for television with Brad, Rob and Adam is a real honor and incredibly exciting,” Powell said. “I look forward to integrating the television group’s capabilities with what we are already doing to provide great content for our audiences on every screen.”

Powell, who began her career at CNN, joined Paramount in 2004 from Sony Pictures. She was promoted in 2006 to senior vp interactive marketing and took on the top role at Insurge in 2010. Her credits include Paranormal Activity, Star Trek, Iron Man, Cloverfield and Transformers.

Paramount TV produced CBS' Beverly Hills Cop pilot, which was shopped to other networks after being passed over at CBS. Executive producer Shawn Ryan recently announced that efforts to find a new home for the project had failed and that the project was now officially dead.